Garcialebias, Alonso & Terán & Alanís & Calviño & Montes & García & Barneche & Almirón & Ciotek & Giorgis & Cascioưa, 2023

Alonso, Felipe, Terán, Guillermo Enrique, Alanís, Wilson Sebastián Serra, Calviño, Pablo, Montes, Martin Miguel, García, Ignacio Daniel, Barneche, Jorge Adrián, Almirón, Adriana, Ciotek, Liliana, Giorgis, Pablo & Cascioưa, Jorge, 2023, From the mud to the tree: phylogeny of Austrolebias killifishes, new generic structure and description of a new species (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 199 (1), pp. 280-309 : 292

Garcialebias gen. nov.

LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E2C0FA2E-4DCB-4A1D-9C4B-65AD8EDCB20B

Type species: Cynolebias reicherti Loureiro & García, 2004 .

Diagnosis: Garcialebias is distinguished from the remaining genera of the Austrolebias genus group by the following combination of characters: (1) in females, anteromedial anal fin rays longer than the rest, resulting in a nearly triangular fin shape; (2) grey vertical bands on flanks; (3) absence of vertical lines of iridescent spots on flanks of males; (4) absence of a gap between preopercular and mandibular series of neuromasts; (5) absence of regular, well-defined vertical dark grey bars only on anterior portion of flank (anterior to the anal fin origin); (6) hyaline pectoral fins with black margin in males (except Garcialebias viarius (Vaz-Ferreira, Sierra de Soriano & Scaglia de Paulete 1965), without black margin); and (7) urogenital papillae not attached to anal fin (except in Ga. cheffei ).

Differential diagnosis: The genus Garcialebias can be distinguished from all other genera of the Austrolebias genus group by having <40 scales in the longitudinal series (vs.> 40 scales in Titanolebias ); by the presence of scales in the preopercular region (vs. absent in Gymnolebias ); by presenting the basal and medial region of the pectoral fins hyaline, in adult males (vs. non-hyaline in Argolebias , Acantholebias , Matilebias , Megalebias , Acrolebias and Cypholebias ); anteromedial anal fin rays longer than the rest, in females, resulting in a nearly triangular fin shape (vs. anal fin rounded in Amatolebias ); urogenital papillae not attached to anal fin in males, otherwise, lack of contact organs on anal fin (vs. urogenital papillae attached to anal fin in males of Austrolebias queguay , Austrolebias univentripinnis , Austrolebias bellottii , Austrolebias ephemerus and Austrolebias melanoorus , and contact organs present on anal fin in Austrolebias vandenbergi and Austrolebias accorsii ).

Additional characters that allow to recognize the species of this genus are as follows: (8) dark grey pigmentation on cephalic neuromasts concentrated on parietal series [except Ga. viarius, Garcialebias botocudo ( Lanés et al., 2021) , Garcialebias nubium ( Lanés et al., 2021) and Ga. araucarianus ]; and (9) black spots on posterior flank and vertically aligned in the peduncle of females [except Ga. viarius , Ga. botocudo, Ga. nubium, Ga. araucarianus and Garcialebias arachan (Loureiro et al., 2004) ].

Synapomorphies: Garcialebias is recovered as monophyletic, supported by 14 molecular synapomorphies and one morphological synapomorphy (see Supporting Information, Appendix S5): flanks of males with dark grey to black spots (21:1).

Included species: Garcialebias viarius (Vaz-Ferreira, Sierra de Soriano & Scaglia de Paulete 1965) comb. nov., Garcialebias araucarianus (Costa 2014) comb. nov., Garcialebias minuano Costa and Cheffe, 2001 comb. nov., Garcialebias charrua Costa and Cheffe, 2001 comb. nov., Garcialebias arachan Loureiro et al., 2004 comb. nov., Garcialebias reicherti Loureiro & García, 2004 comb. nov., Garcialebias nachtigalli Costa & Cheffe, 2006 comb. nov., Garcialebias nigrofasciatus Costa & Cheffe, 2001 comb. nov., Garcialebias bagual Volcan et al., 2014 comb. nov., Garcialebias lourenciano Volcan et al., 2021 comb. nov., Garcialebias cheffei Volcan et al., 2021 comb. nov., Garcialebias adloffi Ahl, 1922 comb. nov., Garcialebias pelotapes Costa & Cheffe, 2017 comb. nov., Garcialebias pongondo Costa & Cheffe, 2017 comb. nov., Garcialebias nubium Lanés et al., 2021 comb. nov. and Garcialebias botocudo Lanés et al., 2021 comb. nov.

Etymology: The genus is dedicated to Dr Graciela García, in recognition of her prominent contributions to ichthyology, especially to the systematics of Rivulidae , and for her essential role in the formation of subsequent generations of professionals in the areas of ichthyology, molecular systematics and genetics in Uruguay. The name of the genus is composed of her last name and, from the Greek, lebias (small fish, a name commonly used to compose generic names of cyprinodontiform fishes).

Distribution: Río Negro basin (lower Uruguay basin), upper Uruguay and Iguazú basins, Atlantic basins of Uruguay Republic and the Patos-Merín lagoon system, in Brazil and Uruguay.